As we age,
One of the great joys that arises is a reconciliation with the wrongs and errors of our past.
Perhaps it is just time that lessens the sense of wrong,
Softens the hurt,
And bathes the past event in a sheen of forgiveness or forgetfulness.
Or perhaps not.
We all know those who cannot let go.
Who hold on to and nurture a grudge,
A wrong,
A slight.
Who worry over it with an almost pleasured bitterness.
Cannot help but feel some sorrow for them,
And to wish them release into a more present ease.
Recently,
My high school class reunited for the 50th anniversary of our graduation.
I was not able to attend,
But on social media I saw dozens of photos of people I scarcely recognized.
Often matched with black and white images of people I did.
So much time has passed.
So much aging has occurred.
And yet,
What was most inspiring about these photos?
Is how everyone had come together with such apparent ease.
Gone were all the old divisions of class and popularity.
Seemingly gone were the resentments that so filled our lives.
From the bullying,
The shunning,
The measuring.
That so mark her teen years.
As we approach 70,
The photos seem to suggest.
We have all left behind the bitterness of those years,
The resentments,
And even any sense of the need to right a wrong.
Or to get even.
Perhaps I'm reading too much into these photos.
But when I studied the image of an older man,
Who in his youth had been the butt of many jokes.
Standing and smiling next to the man who had been an all-star baseball player and whose paths had rarely crossed.
Could not help but feel some gratitude for the gift that comes with our later years of a reconciliation with our pasts.
If any of this resonates with you or if these ideas intrigue you.
I invite you to take a few moments a day in quiet reflection.
On how as you age you become reconciled with your past.
And luxuriate for a few moments in the pleasure that arises.
And which enhances your life and the lives of those you touch.
